


dS does Georgette Heyer's Venetia

by china_shop



Category: due South
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe - Book/Movie Fusion, Fic, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2005-01-24
Updated: 2005-01-24
Packaged: 2017-10-12 22:57:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 502
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/130036
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/china_shop/pseuds/china_shop
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Fraser as the secluded young man -- aged 25 or so -- whose crotchety father has recently died, leaving him orphaned. / A brief description of the novel Venetia, as seen through the lens of the DSverse.</p>
            </blockquote>





	dS does Georgette Heyer's Venetia

**Author's Note:**

> So yesterday I was idly looking around the clutter in my house and I saw that _Venetia_ by Georgette Heyer was mixed in with the papers on my table. Must've been there for months, because I don't remember getting it out.
> 
> It's my favorite of her books, probably because the relationship's a) friends as well as lovers, b) intense and intellectual, and c) transgressive (Venetia is a well-born genteel young woman, and the man she falls for is a disreputable rake).
> 
> This outline contains massive spoilers for the book.

Anyway, it's a Regency romance (or thereabouts -- I haven't checked for specific setting details) and it occurred to me that, oh, I'd _love_ to read it re-written with Fraser and Kowalski (sort of along the lines of Yahtzee's [As Time Goes By](http://www.thechicagoloop.net/yahtzee/chivalry/chivfic/TimeGoesIntro.htm), which is Casablanca with the cast of Angel). See, it'd be like this:

Fraser as the secluded young man -- aged 25 or so -- whose crotchety father has recently died, leaving him orphaned. He's responsible for the care of his much younger sister, Maggie, who's disabled and unsociable, so as much as he'd like to go out and explore the world, he's tied to her and the estate. But he's good-natured and content, if a little restless and lonely.

A local youth (Frannie? Turnbull?) aspires to win his heart, but Fraser's not at all interested.

Then the owner of the neighboring estate -- an infamous reprobate, Kowalski, who's known to live fast and also to have an eye for the young men -- appears, and the two become fast friends, despite the disapproval of Fraser's immediate circle (Vecchio? Welsh? Thatcher?), who worry for Fraser's reputation/innocence.

Maggie has a riding accident near Kowalski's estate, and is forced to stay there until she's recovered sufficiently to be moved. Fraser visits, of course, out of fraternal concern, and also because he can't stay away from Kowalski. For a few halcyon weeks, Fraser discovers the beauty of friendship and love, and Kowalski forgets that he's fucked up his whole life (by running off with a married Stella in his impetuous youth (she subsequently dumped him)).

Then Kowalski realizes that he's jeopardizing Fraser's social prospects, risking dragging him down to his level, and calls for Frobisher to intervene and whisk Fraser off to London. (Leaving Maggie with Kowalski? Uh, maybe not.) There Fraser will be able to meet an appropriate young woman and settle down.

Everyone is very concerned about Fraser's reputation, and he can't work out why, until he happens to see his mother -- presumed dead -- at the opera. She's there with her butch lesbian lover.

Fraser makes contact with her (she's not particularly warm, but she's prepared to acknowledge the connection, even though Fraser's prettier than she is) and secures her partner's help in his plan to pre-emptively ruin his reputation, so there won't be anything standing in the way of his love for Kowalski.

A letter from Frannie, in which she mentions that Kowalski's planning a debauched trip to the continent ("Thank God! We'll be well rid of him!") impresses upon Fraser the urgency of rushing home. He travels day and night, fearful that he's too late.

He's not. He arrives at the Kowalski estate to find a very drunken, depressed Ray who looks at him as though he's a ghost. Fraser explains that he's determined to ruin his reputation, regardless of the method, and that actually he's perfectly happy with the role of outcast. Kowalski protests, but eventually sees that Fraser's mind is made up, and then it's all happily every after. Hooray!


End file.
